1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus that sets a magnification in combine printing based on user's operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a scanner or an MFP (Multi-Functional Peripheral), when a plurality of originals or photographs taken by a digital camera are printed, a function of combining and printing a plurality of originals on each predetermined page, that is, a function of printing originals of N pages onto one page, is known in order to save printed paper. This function is called an N-in-1 function (hereinafter referred to as N-in-1).
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-135977 discloses a technique for providing better visibility in N-in-1.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2006-247873, 2010-041063 and 2007-280369 disclose techniques to display a preview image of a scanned original on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) operation panel and to set finishing intuitively through a predetermined operation by the user on the LCD operation panel.
However, with the conventional technique above, when the user wishes to combine and print as many pages (images) as possible with a character size readable in a sheet of paper, the user predicts the setting such as 2-in-1, 4-in-1, etc. based on the character size in the original. Therefore, the character size, when printed, may become too small because of excessive aggregation, or paper may be wasted because of less aggregation.
In order to solve such a problem, a preview function may be used. According to this manner, the user operates to reduce a preview image appearing on an LCD operation panel thereby making the N-in-1 setting.
However, even when the image is previewed in a reduced size, the user cannot determine whether the image displayed properly in the reduced size fits in 2-in-1 or 4-in-1 and therefore has to decide by his feeling, and, as a result, the printing is sometimes failed.
For example, in a case of 2-in-1 printing, when the user performs an operation for further reduction by mistake, while images can fit in 2-in-1, the character or image printed becomes too small, and the paper size in which the images are supposed to be printed by 2-in-1 is not effectively used, resulting in a print failure. Therefore, it is necessary to fix a reduction ratio in advance so that two pages of originals can be fitted in one page without a loss.